Category: Income/living standards

A report from the Federal Reserve found that last year 60 percent of Americans described their situation as “doing OK” (37 percent) or “living comfortably” (23 percent). That in itself makes for a highly conditional recovery. But lower-income Americans are especially continuing to suffer from the Great Recession and the economic toxins that preceded…

While the world is watching Ferguson, Mo., it is useful to examine how this inner-ring suburb is emblematic of many unfortunate economic trends in America. In 2010, the town was more than 67 percent African-American, a demographic particularly hit hard not only by the Great Recession but by disruptions with a longer arc. The homeownership rate…

The report on delinquent debt in America from the Urban Institute is worth a closer look. Washington is one of only three states with less than 4 percent of people with a credit file having past-due debt. Seattle, at 3.5 percent, is one of the healthiest metros. But nationally 5.3 percent have a credit-card or…

The Associated Press produced what in the South they would call an interesting story this week asserting that this abysmal recovery is really a good thing because it will produce a more “durable” economy. As the economic thinker Samuel L. Jackson says in Pulp Fiction, “Well, allow me to retort.” (With seven charts). • “Fewer…

To the ongoing argument/search to understand how American opportunity has changed in recent decades, I recommend a new report from the groups Measure of America and Opportunity Nation. They take 16 metrics from 1970 to 2010 to give a deeper understanding of where the nation has made gains or faced headwinds. The Historical Report Opportunity Score…

Last week, with protesters chanting outside McDonald’s annual meeting, Chief Executive Don Thompson told attendees, according to news reports, that “the company has a heritage of providing job opportunities that lead to ‘real careers.’ ” While this brought sneers from many critics, I think he’s probably right…but mostly about the McDonald’s circa 1979. Ray Kroc’s…

Set aside, for now, the $15 an hour minimum wage in Seattle. Earlier this week, Senate Republicans shut down an effort to raise the federal minimum from $7.25 to $10.10. News reports called it a “filibuster,” but it wasn’t. A real filibuster would require senators to take and hold the floor, defending their refusal to move…

The chart above shows the dilemma for Americans who derive most of their income from wages and salaries, as opposed to investments. It is more than a personal problem. The Wall Street Journal reports today on how uneven wage gains are holding back the overall economy. Seen over decades, and the collapse of wage…

How can it be that the five-year bull market — the Obama rally, if you will — coincides with a national effort to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and a robust campaign in Seattle for $15? Many shares on Wall Street are at record highs, yet inequality is at Gilded Age levels….

The new report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office offers minimal guidance for the effort in Seattle to raise the minimum wage. The reason: It looks at what might happen if the federal minimum is raised from $7.25 an hour to $10.10. Here, advocates are proposing $15. As reported in the Seattle Times, the…